Thank you for supporting Ferret Legalization!

If you ask the state of California why we remain the only state in North America where ferrets remain illegal you’ll get a canned response:

Since 1933, the state of California has banned ownership of the ferret(Mustela putorius furo), officially labeling it a wild animal that menaces public safety and the state’s native wildlife.  The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) have claimed that the ferret is a savage animal, a danger to small children, a vector of rabies, and a potentially feral predator of endangered animals, particularly birds. (Source)

The official response used to be a lot more outrageous. We no longer hear about ferrets being a threat to babies.

But the one thing we haven’t been able to change is Fish and Game’s refusal to classify the domestic ferret as a domestic animal. Domestic animals are legal per the state constitution and are regulated by the counties, not the state, through the Department of Agriculture.

As long as domestic ferrets are classified as wild animals any attempt to legalize them will be very difficult.

After one Fish and Game Commission meeting where we asked the Fish and Game Commission to remove ferrets from the prohibited species list we got a surprise phone call from Eric Sklar the next day.

“It’s not as easy as it looks” he said. To do so would require a full blown EIR. The official cost would be about $250,000, but when it was all done it would be closer to $600,000. And then “The Environmentalists” would sue us and ferrets would remain illegal. “Get a legislator” he said. “Legislation isn’t subject to CEQA.”

What he was alluding to was opposition from the Sierra Club and PETA.

The Sierra Club doesn’t publicize it, but they want to discourage pet ownership in general. Every pet out there puts that much more pressure on the environment.  We have been told unofficially they’d outlaw dogs and cats if they could. The pet food industry consumes a lot of meat. Meat production causes global warming. Thus we are literally talking about the carbon foot print of ferrets.

PETA, which heavily influences the Humane Society is a bit more honest.

We at PETA very much love the animal companions who share our homes, but we believe that it would have been in the animals’ best interests if the institution of “pet keeping”—i.e., breeding animals to be kept and regarded as “pets”—never existed.

If you want a legislator to introduce a bill, one of their first questions is “who would oppose this?” And the worse answer you could give is “The Sierra Club and the Humane Society.”